Mitch Gann’s

Hillary Clinton is getting heat from the news media pundits and the Obama campaign for having noted that Robert Kennedy was assassinated in the month of June (“Clinton sorry for Kennedy remark” BBC News).

Although I have already stated here that Clinton should quit, I am on her side in this silly flap. In the context of her remarks, it is clear that her point was simply that Kennedy was still campaigning for his party’s nomination in June. She had just previously noted that her husband did not wrap up the nomination until the California Primary in June 1992. Kennedy was killed the night that he won the California Primary in June 1968. But Obama’s people want us to think she was wishing him ill. The news media lap it up like obedient puppies.

So much for new politics. It tastes like the same sour milk.

Ronni Bennett, on her Time Goes By blog, has this to say about money and politics:

. . . it has been said that should Barack Obama win the Democratic nomination, there is precedent for him to hold a fund raiser to help refill Senator Clinton’s personal coffers. This is disgusting – moreso in a time of $4/gallon gasoline, 47 million people without health coverage and skyrocketing food prices. If there are going to be fundraisers, certainly there are more deserving beneficiaries than rich presidential candidates.

I won’t be contributing to Mr. Obama’s fund-raiser on behalf of Mrs. Clinton, should it ever occur. However, I can’t see singling it out as a bad example when presidential campaign spending is setting records and we are still six months from a decision. (Six months! Can it really be that long to go? The horror, the horror . . . .) It’s all a huge waste of resources. 

Yes, I have been known to make a political contribution, and will do so in the future.  But Big Money Politics is one of the things dragging this country down.

One of the things.

AP photo

On the campaign trail in Kentucky, Hillary Clinton is saying stuff like, “You don’t quit on people and you don’t quit until you finish what you started, and you don’t quit on America.”

OK, I get it. You don’t quit, ever. For any reason. Or is it just that you don’t ever admit that you have lost? I mean, lost in the galling way that Hillary Clinton, for example, has lost? Lost to a guy nobody even heard of a few months ago?

You can quit in some circumstances without being a quitter, and you can lose in some circumstances without being a loser. But apparently Hillary intends to soldier on to the bitter end.

Barack Obama has gotten into trouble for calling a female news reporter “sweetie.” This was the second time he publicly used the term of endearment with a woman he did not know; the other time it was a woman factory worked in Pennsylvania back in April.

Senator Obama says calling strangers “sweetie” is a bad habit of his. I’d call it an odd habit, too. It is the sort of thing you would expect from an older guy — John McCain, perhaps. I sometimes call my wife “hon” or my daughters “honey.” But never anybody else.

I do sometimes get called “honey” by waitresses in a certain class of restaurant. Not the class where Obama would likely eat, unless he were trolling for votes.

See: “Obama Sorry for ‘Sweetie’ Comment” BBC News.

Saying that “the government has run amok fiscally,” former Congressman and former Republican Bob Barr has announced his candidacy for the Libertarian presidential nomination. (See the LA Times article.)

I don’t know Bob Barr from beans, but I like his way of putting things. Run amok, indeed! Both the Republicans and the Democrats at the Federal level have lost any sense of fiscal responsibility. When we had the “tax more and spend more Democrats” and the “cut taxes and cut spending Republicans,” we could count on some sanity in the budget process. I’m not talking fairness or effectiveness, just sanity. Sure, the two sides seldom agreed on fiscal spending priorities, but they seemed to agree on the basic principle of having enough revenue to cover expenditures. At least most of the time. At least close to enough.

Then somewhere along the lines, both parties got hooked on the idea of borrowing. Well, why not? It’s the American way. We the people set a bad example for the politicos.

Or was it the other way around?

I doubt I’ll vote for Bob Barr, but I like his budgetary rhetoric.

Listen . . . Do you hear it? Do you hear the drum-beat?

Get out, Hillary. Get out, Hillary. Get out, Hillary.

Yeah, it’s time. The media say so, the money’s dried up, and Bill’s looking hang-dog.

Rack up one last meaningless win in West Virginia, Senator, and then exit, stage left.

See:

“Rahm Emanuel: Obama Is Our Presumptive Nominee” The Huffinton Post

“Obama Takes Lead in Superdelegate Tally” ABC News

“Obama Takes a Victory Lap” The New York Times

“The Pastor’s Press Tour is the Week’s Big Newsmaker” Journalism.org:

Last week—as [Jeremiah] Wright re-emerged into full public view to speak to PBS’ Bill Moyers, the NAACP and the National Press Club—the controversy he generated made more news than both Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Clinton was a significant or dominant factor in 41% of the campaign stories and McCain registered in 14% of them. Meanwhile the relationship between Wright and his former parishioner Obama accounted for 42% of the week’s campaign coverage. Obama, who moved to decisively denounce Wright last week, was the significant or dominant newsmaker in 69% of the stories, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index for April 28-May 4.

These coverage numbers are strikingly similar to those from March 17-23 when Wright’s inflammatory statements about race and the U.S. triggered the first Obama damage control effort . . . .

Comment: I haven’t blogged a word about Obama and his former pastor, and I don’t plan to start now. This post isn’t about them, but the news coverage of their relationship and their split.  Obviously, it was excessive.  What the hell, Wright gave good sound bites.  By “good” I mean “juicy.” The media do love that so.  That’s another way of saying that the average news consumer loves it because Big Media pays attention to what grabs eyes and ears. That’s how it got to be Big Media.

“McCain: Obama ‘Absolutely’ Qualified to Be President” by Zachary A. Goldfarb, The Washington Post:

Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said Sunday that the leader for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, would be “absolutely” qualified to be president, should the voters elect him. But, he said, “I believe that my talent and my background and my experience, which has led to my judgment, … qualifies me more.”

For the record, the Constitution says you have to be 35 or older, and a natural born citizen of the United States.